group-level written forms
Canonical reference record
JMnedict-backedKANJIDIC2 character context
Reference coverageDistinct recorded spellings14 Source spelling/reading rows14 Coverage levelExtended
Extended source depth
This reading group has a comparatively broad dictionary footprint across source-recorded spellings or records. The counts describe corpus coverage, not real-world popularity.
records contributing to this reading group
based only on the imported source footprint
Pronunciation & romanization
How to read Kotō
The kana reading is source-recorded. Romanization and mora segmentation are deterministic reading aids generated from that kana; pitch accent is not inferred.
Normalized to hiragana for comparison.
The same reading converted to katakana.
Macron-style display. Vowel-sequence form: Kotou. Personal spelling and true vowel boundaries can differ.
3 morae in this reading. Small ゃ/ゅ/ょ-type kana join the preceding mora.
Audio note: the play button uses Japanese text-to-speech provided by the visitor’s browser/device. It is a convenience preview, not a recorded native-speaker pronunciation or pitch-accent authority.
Meaning by written form
What can Kotō mean?
A Japanese name can be written in more than one way, and its meaning can change with the kanji used. Rather than assigning one English meaning to “Kotō”, this page explains each recorded spelling separately.
character meanings available
no kanji meaning attached
based on the exact written form
Kanji spelling
児塔
These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.
Characters and loaded glosses
Kanji spelling
古東
These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.
Kanji spelling
古藤
These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.
Kanji spelling
古頭
These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.
Characters and loaded glosses
Kanji spelling
小嶌
These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.
Characters and loaded glosses
Kanji spelling
小東
These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.
Characters and loaded glosses
Kanji spelling
小籐
These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.
Characters and loaded glosses
Kanji spelling
小藤
These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.
Characters and loaded glosses
Kanji spelling
巨藤
These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.
Characters and loaded glosses
Kanji spelling
後等
These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.
Characters and loaded glosses
Kanji spelling
戸藤
These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.
Characters and loaded glosses
Kanji spelling
故東
These are dictionary meanings for the kanji used in this spelling. Together they can suggest associations, but they do not establish one fixed English translation or a particular person’s naming intent.
Characters and loaded glosses
Showing meaning context for the first 12 distinct written forms out of 14. The recorded-spellings section below retains the wider source set.
How to read these meanings
The English words shown here are dictionary meanings of individual kanji. They help explain what a spelling can suggest, but they are not a guaranteed translation of the full name and do not establish why a particular person was given that name.
Reading profile
How Kotō is represented
These counts describe records in the imported name corpus. They are not a ranking of how popular a spelling is among people in Japan.
ことう
among the forms analyzed on this page
in the primary dictionary reading
small ゃ/ゅ/ょ-type kana combine with the preceding mora
recorded spellings
JMnedict classification evidence
How this reading is classified in the source corpus
This separates dictionary classification from popularity. The same exact kana reading can be recorded as a given name, a surname, or both, and given-name records can carry male, female or unspecified source labels.
ことう in the imported JMnedict corpus
0 source spelling/reading rows
69 source spelling/reading rows
row counts carrying each JMnedict source label
| Exact reading | Given-name evidence | Given-name labels | Surname evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| こどうKodō | 1919 source rows | female 1 · unspecified 18source rows · distinct forms: female 1 · unspecified 18 | 00 source rows |
| ことうKotō | 00 source rows | —source rows · distinct forms: — | 6269 source rows |
Classification boundary: male/female/unspecified are labels attached to imported JMnedict name records. They are not population shares, probabilities, identity claims, or evidence that a spelling is currently common in Japan. A source row can also be repeated across different written forms, so row counts and distinct-writing counts are shown separately.
Spelling anatomy
Corpus structure behind Kotō
This section summarizes the exact source-recorded forms loaded for this reading group. Stroke and character-position statistics are descriptive corpus properties, not popularity or style scores.
11–24 strokes observed span
among forms with complete KANJIDIC2 stroke data
all component kanji loaded as jōyō/jinmeiyō classes
contains at least one character outside that loaded classification
| Reading | Romanization | Morae | Forms |
|---|---|---|---|
| ことう | Kotō | 3 | 14 |
Reading ambiguity
Can the same writing be read another way?
9 of 14 displayed written forms have more than one surname reading somewhere in the active JMnedict corpus. This is dictionary-record ambiguity, not a prediction of how a particular person reads the name.
distinct spellings displayed on this page
exact written forms with 2+ source readings
within this active surname corpus
distinct kana readings for one displayed writing
古藤
小嶌
小籐
小藤
古頭
2 source-recorded readings
Kotōことう · this pageFurutōふるとう
小東
2 source-recorded readings
Kotōことう · this pageKohigashiこひがし
巨藤
2 source-recorded readings
KyodōきょどうKotōことう · this page
戸藤
2 source-recorded readings
Kotōことう · this pageTofujiとふじ
A reading shown without a link is still source-recorded, but its destination group does not yet meet the reference-depth standard used for the main library. Limited records are not promoted merely to create extra internal links.
Kanji role reference
How recurring characters function across Kotō spellings
Position counts are calculated only from the distinct written forms analyzed for this page. KANJIDIC2 nanori are character-level name-reading references; they are not used here to decompose or assert the reading of a specific multi-kanji name.
| Kanji | Character glosses | Forms | First | Final | Internal | Solo | Strokes | KANJIDIC2 nanori | Loaded class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 東 | east | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 8 | あい, あがり, あずま, あづま +7 | Jōyō · KANJIDIC grade 2 |
| 藤 | wisteria | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 18 | ぞう, と, ふじゅ | Jōyō · KANJIDIC grade 8 |
| 小 | little, small | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | いさら, こう, さざ, しゃお +1 | Jōyō · KANJIDIC grade 1 |
| 古 | old | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | ふゆ | Jōyō · KANJIDIC grade 2 |
| 頭 | head, counter for large animals | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 16 | かみ, がみ, ちゃん, つむり +1 | Jōyō · KANJIDIC grade 2 |
| 児 | newborn babe, child, young of animals | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | る | Jōyō · KANJIDIC grade 4 |
| 塔 | pagoda, tower, steeple | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | — | Jōyō · KANJIDIC grade 8 |
| 嶌 | island | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 14 | — | Unclassified in the loaded KANJIDIC grade field |
| 籐 | rattan, cane | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 21 | — | Unclassified in the loaded KANJIDIC grade field |
| 巨 | gigantic, big, large | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | おお, か, こ, なお | Jōyō · KANJIDIC grade 8 |
| 後 | behind, back, later | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | こし, し, しい, しり | Jōyō · KANJIDIC grade 2 |
| 等 | etc., and so forth, class (first) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | と, ひ | Jōyō · KANJIDIC grade 3 |
Counts describe this source-recorded spelling set, not population use. A repeated kanji can contribute to more than one position role across different spellings.
Exact writing research map
Move from a spelling to its readings, characters and literal sequence context
These relationships are exact and source-backed. Whole-name readings shown in each card come from JMnedict within the current name class; exact-writing search can surface records from other name classes. Character links open KANJIDIC2-backed kanji pages. Sequence context means the same kanji string occurs contiguously in another recorded written form—it does not prove shared origin or meaning.
Exact written form
児塔
Source-recorded full-name readings in this name class
Kotōことう · this page
Characters in order
Exact written form
古東
Source-recorded full-name readings in this name class
Kotōことう · this page
Exact written form
古藤
Source-recorded full-name readings in this name class
Other public forms containing the same contiguous sequence
The exact sequence 古藤 appears contiguously inside these other source-recorded forms.
Exact written form
古頭
Source-recorded full-name readings in this name class
Kotōことう · this pageFurutōふるとう
Characters in order
Exact written form
小嶌
Characters in order
Exact written form
小東
Source-recorded full-name readings in this name class
Kotōことう · this pageKohigashiこひがし
Characters in order
Exact written form
小籐
Characters in order
Exact written form
小藤
Characters in order
Exact written form
巨藤
Source-recorded full-name readings in this name class
KyodōきょどうKotōことう · this page
Characters in order
Exact written form
後等
Source-recorded full-name readings in this name class
Kotōことう · this page
Characters in order
Showing research maps for the first 10 distinct written forms out of 14. Every detailed spelling card below still links to exact-writing search and its component kanji.
Corpus pattern
Kanji recurring across Kotō spellings
Only characters appearing in at least two distinct analyzed spellings are shown here. Frequency describes this source-recorded spelling set, not real-world baby-name popularity.
Same reading, different writing
Explore written forms of Kotō
14 source-recorded forms use the primary source reading ことう. Other source readings can appear in this romanized group when the imported records converge on the same index form. Use Compare to inspect exact spellings side by side.
児塔
ことう · Kotō
Character-set checkAll kanji are classified as jōyō/jinmeiyō in KANJIDIC2
古東
ことう · Kotō
Character-set checkAll kanji are classified as jōyō/jinmeiyō in KANJIDIC2
古藤
ことう · Kotō
Character-set checkAll kanji are classified as jōyō/jinmeiyō in KANJIDIC2
Same writing, other recorded readings
Exact written-form relationship inside the imported surname corpus.
古頭
ことう · Kotō
Character-set checkAll kanji are classified as jōyō/jinmeiyō in KANJIDIC2
小嶌
ことう · Kotō
Character-set checkContains at least one kanji outside the loaded jōyō/jinmeiyō classification
Same writing, other recorded readings
Exact written-form relationship inside the imported surname corpus.
小東
ことう · Kotō
Character-set checkAll kanji are classified as jōyō/jinmeiyō in KANJIDIC2
小籐
ことう · Kotō
Character-set checkContains at least one kanji outside the loaded jōyō/jinmeiyō classification
Same writing, other recorded readings
Exact written-form relationship inside the imported surname corpus.
小藤
ことう · Kotō
Character-set checkAll kanji are classified as jōyō/jinmeiyō in KANJIDIC2
Same writing, other recorded readings
Exact written-form relationship inside the imported surname corpus.
巨藤
ことう · Kotō
Character-set checkAll kanji are classified as jōyō/jinmeiyō in KANJIDIC2
後等
ことう · Kotō
Character-set checkAll kanji are classified as jōyō/jinmeiyō in KANJIDIC2
戸藤
ことう · Kotō
Character-set checkAll kanji are classified as jōyō/jinmeiyō in KANJIDIC2
Same writing, other recorded reading
Exact written-form relationship inside the imported surname corpus.
故東
ことう · Kotō
Character-set checkAll kanji are classified as jōyō/jinmeiyō in KANJIDIC2
湖東
ことう · Kotō
Character-set checkAll kanji are classified as jōyō/jinmeiyō in KANJIDIC2
虎頭
ことう · Kotō
Character-set checkAll kanji are classified as jōyō/jinmeiyō in KANJIDIC2
Same writing, other recorded reading
Exact written-form relationship inside the imported surname corpus.
Spelling comparator
Compare Kotō forms side by side
Each exact written spelling appears once in this table even when JMnedict records more than one reading for that writing. Stroke totals and character glosses come from KANJIDIC2 when all component kanji are available.
| Spelling | One source reading | Character-level glosses | Total strokes | Loaded character class |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 児塔 | ことう | 児 — newborn babe, child · 塔 — pagoda, tower | 19 | All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified |
| 古東 | ことう | 古 — old · 東 — east | 13 | All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified |
| 古藤 | ことう | 古 — old · 藤 — wisteria | 23 | All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified |
| 古頭 | ことう | 古 — old · 頭 — head, counter for large animals | 21 | All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified |
| 小嶌 | ことう | 小 — little, small · 嶌 — island | 17 | Includes unclassified/outside loaded jōyō-jinmeiyō class |
| 小東 | ことう | 小 — little, small · 東 — east | 11 | All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified |
| 小籐 | ことう | 小 — little, small · 籐 — rattan, cane | 24 | Includes unclassified/outside loaded jōyō-jinmeiyō class |
| 小藤 | ことう | 小 — little, small · 藤 — wisteria | 21 | All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified |
| 巨藤 | ことう | 巨 — gigantic, big · 藤 — wisteria | 23 | All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified |
| 後等 | ことう | 後 — behind, back · 等 — etc., and so forth | 21 | All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified |
| 戸藤 | ことう | 戸 — door, counter for houses · 藤 — wisteria | 22 | All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified |
| 故東 | ことう | 故 — happenstance, especially · 東 — east | 17 | All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified |
| 湖東 | ことう | 湖 — lake · 東 — east | 20 | All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified |
| 虎頭 | ことう | 虎 — tiger, drunkard · 頭 — head, counter for large animals | 24 | All kanji jōyō/jinmeiyō-classified |
What does Kotō mean?
There is not necessarily one fixed English meaning. The reading identifies the spoken name; different written forms can use different kanji. Character glosses describe individual kanji and should not be treated as proof of the intention behind a particular person’s name.
Related readings
More surnames beginning with こと
Related by the opening kana of the dictionary reading. This is a deterministic browsing relationship, not a claim that the names share the same meaning.
Surname · limited reference
Gotō
35 recorded spellings
Explore →Surname · limited referenceGodō
12 recorded spellings
Explore →Surname · limited referenceKodō
8 recorded spellings
Explore →Surname · limited referenceKoto
7 recorded spellings
Explore →Surname · limited referenceKotone
4 recorded spellings
Explore →Surname · limited referenceKotozaki
4 recorded spellings
Explore →Surname · limited referenceGotōmyō
3 recorded spellings
Explore →Surname · limited referenceKotōka
3 recorded spellings
Explore →Surname · limited referenceKotōda
3 recorded spellings
Explore →Shared-kanji relationships
Other surnames sharing kanji with Kotō
These links are calculated from exact characters appearing in source-recorded spellings on this page. Sharing a kanji does not mean two names have the same reading, origin, gender or intended meaning.
Surname relationship
Gotō
古嶌東籐藤頭
6 shared kanji · 17 matching source-recorded spellings
Inspect name →Surname relationshipSaitō
塔東籐藤頭
5 shared kanji · 33 matching source-recorded spellings
Inspect name →Surname relationshipKojima
児古小嶌巨
5 shared kanji · 11 matching source-recorded spellings
Inspect name →Surname relationshipKofuji
児古小籐藤
5 shared kanji · 10 matching source-recorded spellings
Inspect name →Surname relationshipTakatō
塔東籐藤頭
5 shared kanji · 9 matching source-recorded spellings
Inspect name →Surname relationshipItō
東籐藤頭
4 shared kanji · 20 matching source-recorded spellings
Inspect name →Surname relationshipKatō
東籐藤頭
4 shared kanji · 19 matching source-recorded spellings
Inspect name →Surname relationshipEtō
東籐藤頭
4 shared kanji · 18 matching source-recorded spellings
Inspect name →Surname relationshipSudō
東籐藤頭
4 shared kanji · 17 matching source-recorded spellings
Inspect name →Surname relationshipKitō
東籐藤頭
4 shared kanji · 14 matching source-recorded spellings
Inspect name →Surname relationshipShindō
東籐藤頭
4 shared kanji · 13 matching source-recorded spellings
Inspect name →Surname relationshipKantō
東籐藤頭
4 shared kanji · 13 matching source-recorded spellings
Inspect name →Evidence on this page
What each source establishes
JMnedict establishes recorded written forms, readings and name classifications; where safely associated, this page can also show JMnedict-supplied trans_det source text without treating it as a whole-name meaning. KANJIDIC2 supplies character readings, nanori, stroke counts, grade classes and English character glosses. The Ministry of Justice remains the official reference for Japanese child-name character rules. The Agency for Cultural Affairs romanization guidance is the reference for generated Latin-script reading aids.
Source boundary
The spelling-frequency and structural counts on this page are calculated from imported JMnedict records. They are corpus counts, not population-frequency claims. KANJIDIC2 supplies the kanji metadata used in character and stroke comparisons.
Review sources →